Hometown: Barberton, OH
Branch: U.S. Coast Guard
Unit: 37th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron, U.S. Air Force
Military Honors: Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross (3), Air Medal (3)
Date of Sacrifice: June 9, 1968 - KIA near Ban Kaboui, Laos
Age: 34
Conflict: Vietnam War, 1959-1975

Jack Rittichier grew up with his brothers Dave and Henry in Akron, Ohio, 40 miles south of Cleveland and Lake Erie. He was born on August 17, 1933, to parents Carl and Ruby Rittichier.

Jack graduated from Akron’s Coventry High School in 1951. He was a star on the football field and later became a standout at Kent State University.

Athletic and well-liked, Rittichier was named captain of both the football and track teams for Kent State’s “Golden Flashes.” On the gridiron, Rittichier’s 90-yard touchdown run against rival Bowling Green propelled Kent State to its first bowl game, the 1954 Refrigerator Bowl in Evansville, Indiana.

Football teammate Allan Kaupinen recalled, “He was James Dean and Marlon Brando all in one package. When he walked across campus, you noticed him.”

While at the university, Rittichier enrolled in the Air Force Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). Graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1955, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force.

He was assigned to the Strategic Air Command’s 340th Bomber Wing, based at Whiteman Air Force Base in Sedalia, Missouri. There he trained to fly Boeing’s new B-47 Stratojet bomber.

In March of 1957, Rittichier married Carol Laux, who also attended Kent State. His wife recalls that Jack had a biting sense of humor. Others remember that he drank chocolate milk shakes every day.

Making a difference

Over time, Rittichier grew dissatisfied with flying training missions and wanted to make a real difference. In September 1963 he was discharged from the Air Force with the rank of captain, which allowed him to accept a commission as a lieutenant junior grade in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve. He was assigned to Coast Guard Air Base Elizabeth City, North Carolina.

Rittichier trained as a helicopter pilot and found his calling flying search and rescue missions. Promoted to the rank of lieutenant by March of 1966 and integrated into the regular Coast Guard, Rittichier referred to his work as “food for the soul.”

Later assigned to Coast Guard Air Station Detroit, LT Rittichier earned an Air Medal for his role as copilot on a daring November rescue mission on Lake Huron. Flying 150 miles through blinding snow and icy conditions, Rittichier’s helicopter rescued eight seamen from a grounded West German vessel, the Nordmeer, just moments before it broke apart.

Back to the Air Force

In 1968, as war in Vietnam intensified, LT Rittichier was still serving with the Coast Guard in Detroit. Fully aware of the danger, he volunteered for pilot exchange duty with the U.S. Air Force’s 37th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron based at Da Nang Air Base in South Vietnam. His skills as a rough weather rescue helicopter pilot made him an ideal fit for the hazardous duty. He was one of more than 8,000 Coast Guard members who served in the Vietnam War.

Less than two weeks after arriving in Vietnam in April 1968, Rittichier rescued four crewmembers of a downed Army helicopter gunship. His courage in completing the mission in the face of hostile enemy ground fire earned LT Rittichier the Distinguished Flying Cross.

By June 1968, LT Rittichier was serving as rescue commander of a Sikorsky HH-3E “Jolly Green Giant” search and rescue helicopter.

Final mission

The U.S. Naval Institute describes LT Rittichier’s final mission, which took off from Da Nang Air Base, South Vietnam, on a search and rescue mission near Ban Kaboui, Laos:

On 9 June 1968, Rittichier and his aircrew headed out to rescue Marine Corps pilot First Lieutenant Walter R. Schmidt Jr., who had ejected from his damaged A-4 Skyhawk near a [enemy] North Vietnamese staging area. Initial attempts to rescue the pilot were driven back. Finally, Rittichier made an approach and deployed a pararescue member to the injured Schmidt.

As the rescueman jumped to Schmidt below, Rittichier’s aircraft came under enemy fire, causing it to burst into flames. While Rittichier attempted to fly the helicopter to a nearby clearing, the rotors slowed, and the aircraft lost altitude, exploding as it crashed to the ground. The entire crew was lost. Rittichier was posthumously awarded a Silver Star. The entire aircrew’s remains went undiscovered until 2002, when a military joint task force searched to locate the crash site.

At the time of the crash, an active and heavy enemy presence prevented recovery of the lost aviators’ remains. Joint search teams eventually gained access to the crash site, and on August 15, 2003, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (now the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency) positively identified the remains of LT Rittichier.

The return home

On October 6, 2003, LT Jack C. Rittichier came home. He was laid to rest with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery’s Coast Guard Hill (Section 4, Site 3214-A) overlooking the Pentagon.

He is also honored at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C., where his name is inscribed on Panel 58W, Line 14.

For his many rescues during his military career—often while under enemy fire and adverse weather conditions—LT Rittichier would be awarded three Air Medals, three Distinguished Flying Crosses, and a Silver Star Medal.

In Honolulu, Hawaii, LT Rittichier is memorialized in the “Courts of the Missing” at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (Court B, Panel 105). As is the custom, a rosette has been placed next to his name to indicate that he has been found.

In 2009, Kent State University renamed the football program’s MVP award the “Lt. Jack Columbus Rittichier Award” in his memory, at a reunion of the 1954 Refrigerator Bowl team. According to the University, “The CGAA (Coast Guard Aviation Association) funded a Rittichier memorial in Dix Stadium and later a bronze Heisman-like trophy (based on a sculpture titled ‘Jack’s Run’) given to the team’s MVP each year since 2014.

Sources
Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency: Lt. Jack Columbus Rittichier
U.S. Naval Institute: Overlooked Service
Mansfield News-Journal, March 29, 1957: Single Ring Service Read At First Lutheran Church
United States Coast Guard: Lieutenant Jack Columbus Rittichier: “James Dean and Marlon Brando All in One Package”
War History Online: The Fateful Last Mission Of Jack Rittichier, Coast Guard Rescue Pilot In Vietnam
Military Times—Hall of Valor: Jack Columbus Rittichier
Naval History and Heritage Command, Naval Aviation News, May-June 2004: Lt. Jack C. Rittichier: Vietnam KIA Pilot Comes Home
Kent State Magazine: A Hero’s Legacy
U.S. Air Force: Vietnam War MIAs identified
Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association: Rittichier Jack Columbus
The Akron Beacon Journal, June 15, 1968: Rittichier
Burial Site: Find a Grave